University Libraries: Planned CardCat Downtime

Ball State University Libraries’ Catalog Upgrade

As part of a planned systems upgrade, CardCat, the University Libraries' online catalog, will be unavailable between 9:00 a.m. on Monday, August 1, and the evening of Wednesday, August 3.

During this systems upgrade, the following CardCat services will be unavailable:

• Searching for items owned by the University Libraries
• My Library Account (including online renewals)
• Hold and Recall requests
• CardCat links from WorldCat, MultiLink, and MultiSearch

Users will be able to:

• Check out items, including course reserves
• Renew items in person
• Turn in items

Users researching maps, atlases, and other cartographic resources during this time may visit the GIS Research and Map Collection for assistance, and all maps and atlases can still be circulated.

We appreciate your patience and understanding while CardCat is unavailable. If you have any questions about library services or your library account during this time, please contact the Library at 765-285-5143 or via email at libemail@bsu.edu.

New Resources in Ball State University Libraries' Atlas Collection

Historical Atlas of Weaponry, poisonous gas attacks map

Atlas of Sports: Who Plays What, Where, and Why, high school baseball map

Los Angeles in Maps, Hollywood

Los Angeles in Maps, Wrigley Field

Atlas of Food: Who Eats What, Where, and Why, meals eaten out in a year chart

What's New in the Atlas Collection?

The Ball State University Libraries’ Atlas Collection and the atlases included in the GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) cover a wide-ranging list of topics and themes and geographic locations from all over the world. The Atlas Collection houses over 2,500 atlases, including volumes from nearly every country of the world—many in the native languages.

The thematic atlases in the Collection cover topics from many different disciplines, including political science, art, education, health, women’s issues, literature, and recreational activities depicting topics in cartographic form like world tobacco use, obesity, women in government, rainforest loss, illiteracy, wealth distribution, and even golf, fishing, and surfing. The Atlas of Fantasy actually includes maps of fictional places.

Atlases offer more than just maps for research and learning: charts and other images provide graphic descriptions of numerous issues. And atlases are an excellent tool because their smaller size allows for convenient reproduction of the maps for research and learning. Topical maps from atlases can be easily scanned and inserted into papers and presentations for the classroom.

Some new atlases recently added to the collection include the Routledge Atlas of the Holocaust, Illustrated Atlas of Wildlife, Atlas of Transatlantic Slave, and Atlas of Human Rights.

The Historical Atlas of Weaponry is an excellent new resource for history and military science students. The atlas includes 180 maps detailing the use of weaponry around the world dating back to prehistoric times. Maps of important battles are also shown, including Pearl Harbor (shown—click to enlarge).

Atlas of Sports: Who Plays What, Where, and Why by Alan Tomlinson is another interesting new resource in the Atlas Collection. The atlas includes maps about the economics of sports, international sports politics, and country profiles. Sports from around the world are included.

Los Angeles in Maps by Glen Creason is a new atlas describing the cartographic history of the city from the colonial era to the present. Over 70 map reproductions and other historical documents detail the discovery of oil in Los Angeles, the rise of Hollywood (shown), the streetcar system, earthquakes, urban sprawl, and sports history, including a map of Wrigley Field (shown).

The Atlas of Food: Who Eats What, Where, and Why by Erik Millstone and Tim Lang features maps covering a broad range of topics related to the food industry.  Maps, charts, and other illustrations in the atlas describe issues of feeding the world and unequal distribution, organic farming, fast food, pesticides use, changing diets, disease, and world trade.

To investigate the scope of the Atlas Collection, perform an "Advanced Search" in the Library CardCat online catalog: Simply type a topic or geographic place, and choose "Atlas Collection" in the location field. Or type the topic or geographic place and the word "atlas." Atlases can be circulated for 28 days or longer.

For more information about using atlases, please contact Melissa Gentry in the GRMC at 765-285-1097 or email mgentry@bsu.edu.

Disappearing Muncie Exhibit in Ball State University Libraries

Disappearing Muncie: Ball State University Libraries’ Exhibit Depicts Lost Architecture and Heritage

The featured exhibit in the Archives and Special Collections in Bracken Library is Disappearing Muncie: Our Lost Heritage. The exhibit illustrates the changes in Muncie`s downtown during the first half of the twentieth century. The exhibit was made possible by resources from the Ball State University Archives and Special Collections and the Drawings and Documents Archives. Photographs from the W. A. Swift, Spurgeon-Greene, and Otto Sellers collections will be on display, as well as architectural drawings, ephemera, and newspaper articles.

During its peak, downtown was vibrant and bustling with many multi-storied structures, an illustrious courthouse, hotels, several movie theaters and opera houses. However, decades of structural decay and an increased need for more parking led many of these structures, including the Delaware County Courthouse, to be demolished.

The Sanborn Fire Insurance maps of Muncie available from the Archives and Special Collections are another invaluable resource detailing lost architecture of the city. The map shown above from 1887 shows the location of the courthouse at that time (click to enlarge). One of the opera houses can be seen in the block just south of the courthouse. Other now nonexistent shops and businesses can also be viewed on the map, including a billiards hall, cigar and hat shops, agriculture implements, a carriage factory and marble works, and boarding house. The Sanborn maps of Muncie are available from the Digital Media Repository on the University Libraries Web page.

The aerial photograph shown above is part of the historic collection in the GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) and is of the northernmost part of downtown Muncie in 1941. The existing Muncie Fieldhouse can be seen near the river. However, the Minnetrista Golf Course along the river has disappeared. The aerial photograph provides evidence of the freeways on the golf course. The photograph of golfers on the course is from the W.A. Swift collection in Archives and Special Collections.

This featured exhibit will be available through the middle of August. For more information about the exhibit or any of the resources, please contact the Archives and Special Collection at 765-285-5078. For information about the maps, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.

Oslo, Norway Maps Available from Ball State University Libraries

Maps in the News: Oslo, Norway Maps Available from Ball State University Libraries

The Ball State University Libraries GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) on the second floor of Bracken Library includes a large collection of maps of Norway and Scandinavia. The Oslo map shown above (click to enlarge) is an inset map from a 2009 Insight Travel Map of Norway from GeoGraphic Publishers.

The collection includes city maps of Norwegian cities, CIA maps of the country, vegetation and land use maps, and a set of topographic maps of the country. The Atlas Collection also includes road atlases and map books of Norway.

Maps of Norway and Scandinavia have not been fully cataloged and may not appear in the Libraries’ CardCat system, so contact the staff of the GRMC for more information about maps available at 765-285-1097.

Ball State University Libraries Release New Cardinal Scholar Institutional Repository

University Libraries Release New Version of Cardinal Scholar Institutional Repository

by Michael G. Szajewski, Archivist for Digital Development and University Records

A new version of Cardinal Scholar Institutional Repository, a project of the University Libraries, is now available for searching and community contributions. It utilizes DSpace digital asset management software to enhance access to resources uploaded to the repository, and it is designed to encourage further contributions to the repository through its streamlined and simplified uploading process.

Designed as a user-deposit system, Cardinal Scholar allows university community members to contribute to its collection of digital assets. In order to organize its assets better, the new Cardinal Scholar has been divided into two communities: Ball State Theses and Dissertations, and Ball State University Records and Publications. In addition to the repository’s new organizational structure, Cardinal Scholar includes many additional improvements to facilitate access and encourage user contributions. For example, the new repository allows a user to login using his or her Ball State username and password, no longer requiring a separate set of credentials. Once a user is logged-in, the new repository’s streamlined, simplified upload procedure allows the person to upload and provide information about a document in two simple steps.

When describing an item, users may now choose from a broader range of fixed terms, allowing categorization of uploaded documents to be completed more easily and with greater specificity to enhance search precision. Cardinal Scholar’s search interface has been improved, too, as the repository home page now includes an advanced search option to allow users to construct search queries of increased complexity. Furthermore, Cardinal Scholar 2.0 provides improved searching ability at the community and collection levels.

Visit the new Cardinal Scholar page at http://cardinalscholar.bsu.edu/. For more information, visit Cardinal Scholar Frequently Asked Questions, http://cardinalscholar.bsu.edu/bsu/faq.jsp, or contact Michael G. Szajewski, Archivist for Digital Development and University Records, in the Archives and Special Collections at 765-285-5078.

(The map shown above, Storybook England, features popular children’s literature from England. The map is available in Cardinal Scholar from the GIS Research and Map Collection).

John Dillinger Gang Robberies Map Available from Ball State University Libraries

Public Enemies: John Dillinger Gang Robberies Map Available from Ball State University Libraries

The GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) created the map Public Enemies: Robberies of the John Dillinger Gang (click to enlarge above) based on information from a book by Bryan Burrough, Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-1934 (available from the General Collection of Bracken Library) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Historic Famous Cases Web page. The movie Public Enemies starring Johnny Depp is also based on the Burrough book.

John Dillinger was a legendary bank robber from Indiana who became America’s first “Public Enemy Number One.” The map marks the locations of reported robberies of Dillinger and his gang beginning with a robbery in Daleville, Indiana in the summer of 1933. Other events related to Dillinger are also featured on the map, including the location of his death in Chicago on this day—July 22—in 1934.

A copy of the map is available in PDF-format from the Ball State University Libraries’ Cardinal Scholar repository at http://cardinalscholar.bsu.edu/handle/123456789/194224.  The map is available for circulation for two weeks or longer. Additional printed copies of the map may be obtained from the GRMC weekdays from 7:30 to 4:30. Contact the staff for more information at 765-285-1097.

Ball State University Cardinal Kids Camp Mapping the World

Ball State University Cardinal Kids Camp Colors the World (Map)

The Ball State University Cardinal Kids Camp kicked off its “Around the World” week coloring world maps from the University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC). Cardinal Kids Camp is a summer program managed by the Office of Recreation Services that provides children weeks of activities including games, arts and crafts, tours, and swimming. The campers range in age from preschool to age 13. Each year the GRMC coordinates some special learning projects for the campers and organizes a visit to Bracken Library with Educational Resources Collections staff for other games and activities.

Many of the activities used for Cardinal Kids Camp and other youth activities are available from the GRMC on the University Libraries' Cardinal Scholar institutional repository at http://cardinalscholar.bsu.edu/.  For more information about using maps in the classroom or for special learning activities, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.

Obesity in America Map from Ball State University Libraries

Growing Pains: Obesity in America Map

According to a report from the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, obesity rates in the United States have climbed at least 90 percent in 17 states from 1995. Nine of the ten states with the highest obesity rates are in the South, with Mississippi leading at 34.4 percent, followed by Alabama and West Virginia. These states also lead the nation in diabetes and high blood pressure, showing how obesity rates can be related to other health issues and healthcare costs.

The above maps (click to enlarge) are from the Penguin State of the World Atlas by Dan Smith available in the Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) and Atlas Collection. The maps show the percentage of adults who are obese. In the 1996 map, no state had an obesity rate above 20 percent. Five years later in 2001, only Mississippi had a rate over 25 percent, but many states had crossed over the 20 percent obesity mark. And in the span of ten years in 2006, only Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Colorado remained below 19 percent.

These maps clearly depict the growing problem of obesity in America, and also show how maps can be an important visual aids for explaining data. Maps offer an excellent way to communicate complex data visually. The GRMC developed an online guide about using maps and atlases as visual aids for academic papers and presentations on the Digital Map Resources section of the GRMC Research Tools Web page at http://cms.bsu.edu/Academics/Libraries/CollectionsAndDept/GISandMaps/MapCollection/ResearchTools.aspx.

For more information about these maps or using maps in presentations and papers, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097 Monday through Friday.

Ball State University Libraries Independence Day Map Exhibit

Not So Independent: GIS Research and Map Collection July Map of the Month

The July “Map of the Month” exhibit in the Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) is the American Associations with Britain map (click to enlarge) in honor of Independence Day. The map was published in 1970 by British Travel to mark the 350th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower.

A map of Great Britain and Ireland is shown with links to people and places in American history and culture: The Southwark Cathedral in London has a Harvard Memorial Chapel commemorating John Harvard, founder of Harvard University in Massachusetts, who was born nearby. Skibo Castle in Scotland was the home of Andrew Carnegie in his later years. Memorials of Presidents Washington, Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and Kennedy are located throughout London. Birthplaces of prominent Americans and ports of departure of explorers of early America are also shown.

Maps from the GRMC circulate for two weeks or longer. For more information about this map, please contact the staff at 765-285-1097.

Holiday Hours at Ball State University Libraries

Holiday Hours at the Ball State University GIS Research and Map Collection
The GIS Research and Map Collection will be closed on Monday, July 4 and will reopen at 7:30 A.M. on Tuesday, July 5.